Production flows used for testing dies on wafer lots typically require several thousands of test procedures to be performed on each of the dies by a plurality of multi-function test equipment. Each piece of test equipment may be capable of running a number of test procedures that may be applicable to certain types of materials. Test equipment operators who receive wafer lots on the production floor are required to manually input data associated with the wafer lots, and select specific tests to run on the wafer lots. After the tests are run, the test equipment operator would be required to manually record the test results. The test equipment operator may also be required to determine a next course of action to take in response to the test results.
In the past, a physical document was typically used to convey information to the test equipment operator regarding a wafer lot to be tested on the production floor such as the lot identifier and specific test programs to be run. This physical document was also used to record test results and often included rules to be applied to determine how to further process the wafer lot. However, since the information on the physical document had to be processed by the test operators, many of the errors associated with testing materials such as wafer lots on the production floor could be attributed to human error in interpreting information from the physical document or entering data onto the physical document. In addition, the use of the physical document proved to be inefficient for tracking the wafer lot on the production floor and tracking the document itself.
Thus, what is needed is an effective and efficient method and apparatus for managing testing in a production flow that reduces the problems associated with requiring human operators to retrieve, interpret, and enter information on a physical document.